Phones rapidly returning in Huntington

HUNTINGTON, Mass. (WWLP) - Little by little repair crews are restoring telephone service to the Hampshire County Hilltown of Huntington. 80 percent of the town lost phone service Saturday morning.

Phone company crews spent the day working on the wires that were damaged when a driver hit the power pole Saturday morning.

Throughout this Hilltown, 22News heard stories of neighbors helping neighbors during this difficult time. John Slattery owns the Main Street Bar and Grille, and he had phone service. “One of my employees also works for the fire departments; we were able to get some feedback what was going on. It was a way to help anyone who needed something so we allowed people to use our phone.”

22News went to the crisis command post, the fire department. The news there was good. Tom Gralinski, the Assistant Huntington Fire Chief, told 22News, “The hope is that probably sometime this evening things will be back up.”

Some people made the best of a bad situation. Longtime Huntington resident Gilbert Gagnon sort of rolled with the punches. Gagnon told 22News he rather enjoyed not having his phone ring. “I was able to get more sleep and nobody called. I like to take a nap in the afternoon, no phone calls I slept pretty well.”

Other people won't lose any sleep over the rapid return of their phone service right away.

Aimee Burnham, the Huntington select board chair, notified 22News that everyone should have their phones working at this hour. If not, contact Verizon directly.

It seems crews worked all night to get the phones working again. And as of Sunday night, land-line telephone service has been completely restored to the town of Hungtinton.